The 19th century invites comparison with our modern age in many ways, both of which are characterised by unprecedented material growth and a concomitant spiritual crisis. As the Industrial Revolution and the expansion of the empire transformed the landscapes of Victorian Britain, new problems and conflicts arose consequent upon the rapid and unregulated development. The Victorian era was a time when faith was being shaken, society increasingly stratified and gender roles sharply dichotomised. Alongside the political reforms across the century to address the many vexing problems and maintain social stability, Victorian writers were exploring ways out and effecting changes on intellectual, cultural and social levels. This period witnessed challenges and diverse responses to orthodox Christianity, the emergence of the ‘Woman Question’, the impact of contemporary science and the emergence of science fiction. Inheriting Romantic sensibilities, Victorian writers further developed the Gothic style and invented the new genre of sensation fiction, and led the important Aesthetic Movement and Decadent Movement. This course will seek to provide a panorama of the Victorian age and discuss how the nineteenth-century writings responded to the challenges of the time and pushed the boundaries of art and culture.

• Students will be acquainted with the social and cultural landscapes of the nineteenth century and the major issues explored by Victorian writers across various genres.
• They will be able to analyse the literary techniques in the nineteenth-century writings and appreciate the fascinating worlds crafted by those writers with their distinctive ways to address social issues, push boundaries, or simply to represent humanity.
• They are also encouraged to relate the studied texts to the modern society they live in and find possible solutions, inspirations or consolations.

There will be three contact hours per week consisting of a two-hour lecture and an one-hour tutorial. Students are expected to post questions on Moodle forums before each class session and/or share their thoughts after class.

All the readings will be available on Moodle. Primary texts include excerpts from the novels of Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Thomas Hardy and Elizabeth Gaskell, poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Christina Rossetti and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Oscar Wilde’s plays, and Rudyard Kipling’s short stories; secondary texts include Henry Mayhew, Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, Matthew Arnold and Water Pater (subject to minor changes).